Michael Dadap is a popular

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

, composer, and

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Music * Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra. * ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas * Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...

, and an influential advocate of Filipino

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

. He was influential in the creation of a world-class

rondalla The rondalla is an ensemble of stringed instruments played with the plectrum or pick and generally known as plectrum instruments. It originated in Medieval Spain, especially in the ancient Crown of Aragon: Catalonia, Aragon, Murcia, and Valencia. ...

ensemble in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

is also the founding music director of the ''Iskwelahang Rondalla'' (Rondalla School) of Boston, Massachusetts. Acosta, Adolovni. ''Michael Dadap: Guitarist, Composer and Conductor'', Printed Programme for the ''Pamana'' (A Heritage of Philippine Music), A Presentation Sponsored by the Consulate General of the Philippines in Celebration of the 109th Anniversary of Philippine Independence, Monday, June 11, 2007, 7:30 p.m., Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center, New York

Early life and training

Dadap was born in Barangay Bangcas B

Hinunangan Hinunangan, officially the Municipality of Hinunangan ( Kabalian: ''Lungsod san Hinunangan''; ceb, Lungsod sa Hinunangan; tl, Bayan ng Hinunangan), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Southern Leyte, Philippines. According to the 202 ...

Southern Leyte Southern Leyte ( ceb, Habagatang Leyte; Kabalian: ''Habagatan nga Leyte''; war, Salatan nga Leyte; tl, Timog Leyte), officially the Province of Southern Leyte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital ...

, on May 19,1944, into a family of

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who w ...

s, one of the 14 children of Dionesia Amper and Vedasto Dadap. His first exposure to music was at a local Protestant church, where he grew up with the hymns of

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his train ...

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

and

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1964 from the University of the Philippines, majoring in conduction. In 1971, he went to study composition and conducting at the

Mannes College of Music Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School c ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and three years later made his debut performance at

Carnegie Recital Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built by ...

. He also toured as a musical performer in other parts of the United States,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The te ...

.Maestro Dadap Yearns for the ''Kundiman'', Life & Music & the Filipino, Philippine News and PhilippineNews.com, December 6, 2005
, retrieved on: July 7, 2007

Career

Since 1984, Dadap has been the artistic and musical director and principal conductor of the

Children's Orchestra Society The Children's Orchestra Society (COS) is a non-profit organization in New York City founded by Dr. Hiao Tsiun Ma for musically talented children and teens.New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. WQXR, the classical music radio station of The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, featured Dadap's album, ''Intimate Guitar Classics'', in 1990. Dadap had also been given the Asian-American Alliance for the Arts Award for composing the ''Handurawan Dance Suite'', a work that was premiered by the

Brooklyn Philharmonic There have been several organisations referred to as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The most recent one was the now-defunct Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, an American orchestra based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in existence fr ...

's Chamber Orchestra in 1988. In December 2000, Dadap was recognized as the first recipient of the ''2000 Artist of the Year'' by the

Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushing ...

Council on the Arts in

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long Is ...

. On December 7, 2007,

Philippine President The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of t ...

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal Arroyo (, born April 5, 1947), often referred to by her initials GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician serving as one of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, House Deputy Spe ...

, presented Dadap the '' Pamana ng Lahi Award'' at the Malacañan Palace. As a conductor, Dadap has worked with

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ists

Cho-Liang Lin Cho-Liang Lin (Lin Cho-liang, , born January 29, 1960), born in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is an American violinist who is renowned for his appearances as a soloist with major orchestras. Musical America named him its "Instrumentalist of the Year" in 20 ...

, Soovin Kim and

Sarah Chang Sarah Chang ( ko, 장영주; born Young Joo Chang; December 10, 1980) is a Korean American classical violinist. Recognized as a child prodigy, she first played as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1989. ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

Cecile Licad Cecile Buencamino Licad (born 11 May 1961) is a Filipina classical pianist. She was born in Manila. Awards * In 1981 Licad received the Leventritt Competition Gold Medal. * Her recording of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Saint-Saëns' Piano C ...

and

Emanuel Ax Emanuel "Manny" Ax (born 8 June 1949) is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is a teacher in the Juilliard School. Early life Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, (in what was then the Soviet Union) to Joachim and ...

, cellist (and brother-in-law)

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

flutist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

Paula Robison Paula Robison (born June 8, 1941) is a flute soloist and teacher. Early life and education Paula Robison was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the daughter of David V. and Naomi Robison, an actor. David Robison was a playwright and writer for film a ...

, and most recently

Jaime Laredo Jaime Laredo (born June 7, 1941) is a violinist and conductor. He was the conductor and Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and he began his musical career when he was five years old. Laredo was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In 1948, ...

and Sharon Robinson. His other works include the children's musical play, ''Five

Visayan Visayans ( Visayan: ''mga Bisaya''; ) or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. When taken as a single ethnic group, ...

Serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the :it:Serenata (musica), Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honor of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term c ...

s for Guitar''; the full-length folkloric

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

, ''Alamat ng

Ampalaya ''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon; Goya; bitter apple; bitter gourd; bitter squash; balsam-pear; with many more #Alternative names, names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely ...

'' (Legend of the

Bitter Melon ''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon; Goya; bitter apple; bitter gourd; bitter squash; balsam-pear; with many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Afr ...

); and the ''Legend of the

Tikling The buff-banded rail (''Hypotaenidia philippensis'') is a distinctively coloured, highly dispersive, medium-sized rail of the rail family, Rallidae. This species comprises several subspecies found throughout much of Australasia and the south- ...

Bird''. Dadap is also the author of the book ''Complete Method for the

Virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as ...

Bandurria The bandurria is a plucked chordophone from Spain, similar to the mandolin and bandola, primarily used in Spanish folk music, but also found in former Spanish colonies. Instrument development Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had a round ...

''. Dadap was one of the featured performing artists during the celebratory musical program for the 109th anniversary of Philippine

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the s ...

, ''Pamana'' (A Heritage of Philippine Music), a presentation held at the Kalayaan Hall of the

Philippine Center The Philippine Center is an agency of the Philippine Government in New York City and San Francisco in the United States. The New York City structure houses the Philippine Mission to the United Nations, the Philippine Consulate General, and the o ...

in New York City on June 11, 2007. Dadap's performance was followed by a

recital A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

by the Filipino pianist,

Adolovni Acosta Adolovni Acosta (born 1946) is a Philippine-born classical pianist. Acosta is the daughter of Guillermo and Ernestina Acosta. She is a notable concert pianist and recitalist. Training and Education in Manila Adolovni Acosta started piano lessons ...

Personal life

Dadap is a Queens, New York resident. He lives with his wife, Yeou-Cheng Ma, the eldest sister of

. Dadap has two children, Daniel and Laura.

References

Specific

General